Vita e forme della soggettività : Simmel e il soggetto in evoluzione

In this paper, I examine the role played by life in Georg Simmel's theory of subjectivity. My aim is to explore Simmel's contribution to the theory of knowledge, to the sociology of knowledge, and to the study of the historicity of perception. In the first section, I outline the main features of Simmel's reflection on subjectivity, starting from Simmel's reception of Kantian philosophical heritage. In the second section, I take into account Simmel's theory of the genesis of subjectivity, which emerges from a natural indistinction with life through an evolutionary process. In the third section, I examine the connection between social change and the systems of thought that dominate an era, with particular reference to modernity. In the fourth section, I consider the specific set-up of cognitive faculties that, according to Simmel, characterize the modern subject and the metropolitan individual. [Publisher's Text].